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A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and a Family’s Quest for Justice

We rated this book:

$35.00

December 7, 1941 witnessed an attack on America that left 2,000 plus dead and the United States on the road to World War II. The first questions after dealt with preparation and foreknowledge. Why didn’t the Army and Navy Commanders, particularly Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short, have their base better suited to handle an attack? These men were quickly transferred, demoted in rank, and eventually subject to court martial. Admiral Husband Kimmel had a military pedigree. Kimmel had been successful in his endeavors, being accepted at Annapolis and would eventually be named four-star admiral overseeing the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor. Intelligence signaling the coming attack would be passed around government circles but would never seem to reach Kimmel or Short. Both would be left out in the cold, neither able to repair the damage to their names.

A Matter of Honor is a stirring indictment of government officials relating to intelligence gathering in the pre-World War II days. Summers and Swan detail the many opportunities that came up to derail an attack if not alert forces to the coming attack, ranging from double agent Dusko Pupov to the Magic code-breaking operation. Husband Kimmel is shown to be an honorable man who bit his tongue initially but fought a losing battle to vindicate himself in the worst intelligence failure of the 20th century. His family is still continuing the good fight. A must-read for World War II buffs.